Paul gallico the snow goose
•
REVIEW: The Snow Goose, Paul Gallico (1947)
In 1940, The Saturday Evening Post carried a short story by Paul Gallico (1897-1976), who had begun his career as a sports reporter but who, in 1936, had moved to England and started writing fiction. In 1941, the story was published by Alfred A. Knopf as a slim novella of some fifty pages and was Gallico's first major success as a fiction writer, being reprinted several dozen times in succeeding years. It was also Gallico's only critical success, although he went on to write the hugely popular "Mrs. 'Arris" series, as well as The Poseidon Adventure. The Snow Goose was, in Gallico's words, "a once in a lifetime happening for a writer."
The story of The Snow Goose is a variation on the ageless myth of a man whose physical deformity prevents most people from seeing his underlying admirable character. It begins in 1930, and is set on the east coast of England. Philip Rhayader, an artist in his
•
The Snow Goose
In 1930, painter Philip Rhayader takes up residence in an abandoned lighthouse on the marshlands of the Essex coast, retreating from a society that has judged him and been unkind to him on konto of his physical deformities. He spends his time amid natur, sailing his small boat, painting and providing skyddad plats to birds during the harsh winters. When Frith, a ung girl from a local village, appears at his door with an injured snow goose, Philip cares for it, nursing it back to health and christens it “The Lost Princess”. Every year the snow goose returns in October before flying north, in the spring. Frith, drawn to the snow goose, also returns. The friendship between Philip and Frith friendship grows over the years - a friendship f
•
During recent “Me Before You” discussions, some of us wondered if most fictional romances between disabled and nondisabled characters were always cut short. I started thinking about a story I read a long time ago.
I don’t remember how old I was when I first read The Snow Goose by Paul Gallico. I’m pretty sure that it was between the ages of 10 and 13, because I was already familiar with the story when a made-for-tv version of it aired in 1971. Here’s a good synopsis of the story from Wikipedia:
The Snow Goose is a simple, short written parable on the regenerative power of friendship and love, set against a backdrop of the horror of war. It documents the growth of a friendship between Philip Rhayader, an artist living a solitary life in an abandoned lighthouse in the marshlands of Essex because of his disabilities, and a young local girl, Fritha. The snow goose, symbolic of both Rhayader (Gallico) and the world itself, wounded by gunshot and man